62/2373. Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951)
A woman loves her man so much, she lets him believe that he murdered the policeman she shot. It's every film noir cliche in one movie! The ending is... well, even if you saw it you wouldn't believe it. True story: it put me to sleep.

63/2374. Family Practice Mysteries: Coming Home (2024)
The hardest part to believe about this Hallmark Mystery Movie (in which the murderer's motive is -- surprise! -- greed) is that the protagonist doctor (a former military doctor who seems to be the only person in town who has ever heard of poisoning someone to death) has so much spare time (and office space) on her hands that she can be up in everyone else's business.

64/2375. Tipline Mysteries: Dial 1 for Murder (2024)
This Hallmark Mystery Movie leans hard into being a Hallmark Mystery Movie, and I think that's the correct impulse. We don't watch these puzzle movies for realism. In fact, although there were several moments where the police procedure was questionable, the enthusiastic protagonists were always enjoyable to accompany as they stumbled their way to the solution.

65/2376. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
I saw the Pierce Brosnan in theater on release, but this was my first time watching the Steve McQueen original. The first half is a heist film; the second is a romance. I enjoyed the heist (and the ending, which made me Google which was the first movie in which the criminal gets away with his crime), but the pacing is way too slow and McQueen's character and fickle love interest Faye Dunaway are way too unlikable to really enjoy spending time with them.

66/2377. The Babe Ruth Story (1948)
If you look this up online, you'll see many critics in its day called it the worst movie ever made. It's not that bad, but they've made a lot of movies since 1948. Personally, I thought it was a good time. It's a clearly sanitized version of The Babes life story intended for kids, and that's fine.

67/2378. Arsène Lupin (1932)
If you do Google which was the first movie in which a criminal gets away with a crime, the original British 1916 version of this movie will come up. (The Italian film Filibus beats it by a year, and the French Fantomas by three. I'm still not sure what the first American film to feature successful criminal was, though if I stretch the definition to short films, the answer is probably D.W. Griffith's The Musketeers of Pig Alley in 1912.) The reason to watch this version is to see the two Barrymore brothers acting opposite one another, as cop vs. robber, in the same film. Boy, that family had some acting talent.

More to come.

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128/2137. To Hell and Back (1955)
The story of the most decorated United States soldier of World War II, Audie Murphy, as told by... Audie Murphy! Murphy's participation, though wooden, is the only reason this movie works; it's just too hard to believe that such a character could exist in the real world.

129/2138. The Whistler (1944)
If you're a fan of the Golden Age of Radio — and who isn't? — you no doubt recognize The Whistler as an anthology series of suspense stories. The movie version focuses on just one story (more or less) as a well-intentioned Richard Dix at the end of his rope is drawn into a number of life-or-death situations. I actually liked it more than I like the radio show.

131/2140. McEnroe (2022)
John McEnroe and his friends and family tell his life story in this autobiographical documentary. This was done in a similar style as the Tony Hawk documentary I watched earlier this year, and I thought this one superior, largely because McEnroe is more willing (or capable) of investigating some of the worse/private aspects of his life story in addition to the happier/famous moments.

You might say that archival footage doesn't count as product placement, but they didn't have to use this particular shot.

132/2141. This Is Joan Collins (2022)
Another autobiographical documentary, this time for the Dynasty star whose career had a lot of ups and downs (and #MeToo moments). She's quite charming.

133/2142. The Animal Kingdom (1932)
Speaking of charming women, Myrna Loy is herein supposed to be playing the proverbial gold-digging wife who tries to corrupt her artistically-minded husband, but I choose to interpret her character as a well-intentioned sophisticate working to save a wishy-washy gadfly from throwing away his fortune on drunks and whores. Casting is everything!

134/2143. Men in White (1934)
More Myrna Loy, here playing the exasperated fiance of Clark Gable's selfless driven doctor who has made the mistake of knocking up a nurse... and then operates to save her life after her illegal back-alley abortion goes awry. Welcome to the future, everybody!

More to come.

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What's Walter watching? Let's find out.

127. (1781.) The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)
Edward G. Robinson is a doctor who becomes a criminal to research crime only to learn that it doesn't pay. He could have saved himself some trouble and just watched some Edward G. Robinson movies.

128. (1782.) The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder (1974)
Part anti-establishment romantic comedy, part anti-war tragedy, this film earns high marks for bringing a reasonably light touch to several real issues. (The movie was produced by Playboy, and you can totally feel the magazine's mid-seventies vibe in the finished product.) If you can tolerate the inevitable tonal see-saw, you'll probably enjoy it.

Crazy Goes Better with Coke! ®

129. (1783.) Three Strangers (1946)
The Chinese goddess of destiny brings three flawed but related people together for a share of a fortune with predictably tragic results. It's like a long, forgettable episode of The Twilight Zone.

130. (1784.) The Killing Fields (1984)
Feeling depressed about the state of global political affairs in 2020? Then don't watch this (more or less) true story about reporters caught up in the chaos following America's withdrawal from Cambodia in advance of the murderous Khmer Rouge in the mid 70s. That there are monsters in the world who would do these sorts of things.... The devil is real, and he is human.

Killing Goes Better with Coke! ®

131. (1785.) The Boston Strangler (1968)
My string of uplifting movies continues with this pile of horseshit. Though it pretends to also be a biopic, it's really nothing more than an exploitation film trading on the horror of some real murders. I have to assume that all the great acting talent involved must have been unaware that the producers were going to turn their work into such dreck.

132. (1786.) White House Down (2013)
When a self-described terrorist group led by a right-wing decorated former secret service agent invades the White House, it's a race against time for "Charmin'" Channing Tatum to save President Not-Obama and unravel their evil plot. There are some fun action scenes, but the movie's big problem is that the enemy's plan is so dumb and obvious that every government bigwig comes across as a fucking moron for failing to decipher their true intent before the last 5 minutes. Wait, was I supposed to be cheering for the terrorists? Stupid liberal Hollywood.

More to come.

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Today's blog entry was going to be about how much I hate those stupid inflatable yard holiday decorations, but then I realized that everything in the blog has been negative this month. So instead, let me mention something that I actually like: Heroes on NBC.

Heroes is up against Monday Night Football and is marketed to that group of television viewers that is disinterested in sports (you know, geeks and women). As much as I love comic books, I'm not going to bypass weekly football for a television show about, well, anything. I wouldn't have ever discovered this gem except for NBC's brilliant decision to also air it on their sister station SciFi Network on Fridays before Doctor Who, which I also love. And starting last week, NBC.com now streams old episodes so that I can catch up on the elements that I missed. (Heroes is as much an episodic serial as any other soap opera, so, believe me, there was a lot to catch up on.)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: America loves super heroes. (I think it's part of the American Dream.) Despite the entertainment ghetto to which comic books have been traditionally relegated, they continue to inspire more popular entertainments such as movies and television shows. If this show was a comic, it would never reach the mass audience it deserves. And it's a blast to find a well-written television show that contains as much wonder, suspense, and excitement as an issue of Grant Morrison's JLA. If Superman Returns had been written half as well as this, it could have been among the greatest movies ever.

Yet despite being a television show designed for a mass audience, the show is very loyal to its comic book roots. (In one episode, a major character is revealed to be a member of the "Merry Marvel Marching Society." Sweet!) Heroes is an enjoyable mixture of X-Men meets X-Files with a hint of Smallville. Though this makes it a little predictable for longtime comic readers, it more than makes up for that with an enthusiastic and encouraging embrace of the super hero genre. In any given episode, you'll find such echos of such characters as DC's Phosphorus Man, Thorn, and Waverider, or Marvel's Cannonball, Rogue, and Shadowcat. Excelsior!

So there you go. Something I like. This blog will now resume its regularly scheduled bitching.

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